My Wedding at Villa del Arco

[Hedra68]

Ladies,

 

My husband and I were married on June 19, 2010 at Villa del Arco Hotel and Resort. I spent many days researching resorts, photographers, reading blogs and comments from the Cabo Forum. I didn't find as much information for Villa del Arco when compared to other resorts. Regardless, my gut instinct said to go with Villa del Arco because it provided everyhting that I was looking for: a nice calm beach for our guests, views of Land's end and most important that the wedding package fit within our wedding budget. I hope that my summary can help out future brides that are considering this place.

 

I had the opportunity to work with Gretel Aguilera and Mina Fano from the Villa del Arco event planning group. I chose Villa del Arco because it was the nicest of resorts that are part of Villa Group. However, to save some money, my guests and us stayed at Villa del Palmar. We were able to book at $100/nt. The hotel gave us a fanstastic room facing the ocean and Land's End. There was a shuttle that transports all the guests from one resort to another and we were able to visit both hotels and take a swim. Given that there are many beaches that are a little rough to swim in when it comes to the hotel corridor area, we chose Villa del Arco because of th great views and the more calmer beaches.

 

Once we got to the resort, we met up with our Wedding Coordinator at La Perla Restaurant (Villa del Arco), where are reception took place. We were amazed at the amount of food and variety dishes that were going to be served. We were a group of 32 people and the dinner buffet could pretty much feed 100. The food was delicious. We weren't expecting much but were pretty impressed.

 

Our rehearsal luncheon took place at Baja Cantina on Medano Beach. It was a 10 buck cab ride from the resort. We had appetizers, margaritas, beers, a great meal and dessert for only $35 per person. Service was outstanding and the views were lovely.

 

Prior to the ceremony by bridesmaids and I went to the Desert Spa and we were assigned a beautiful suite with a jacuzzi and two massage tables for free. I can't believe this was included in the package!!!!

 

Our wedding ceremony took place in the garden area next to the main pool at 6pm. We wanted to enjoy some sunlight prior to sunset. We still faced the ocean and the beautiful scenery of Land's End. The ceremonies that are normally held on the beach are not as private given all the vendors and random people hanging out by the beach. Our minister was Rev. Marco Arechiga and he did a great job at holding a touch felt ceremony and incorporating a sand ceremony within our wedding.

 

Once the ceremony was over, we took pictures and walked over to the Buchaneer Ship (a boat in the middle of the main pool) for cocktail hour. It was extremely fun. My suggestion for appetizers are the fish ceviche and the guacamole with chips. The bartenders had sangria and margaritas waiting for us.

 

La Perla restaurant was reserved just for our group so it felt like we had a wonderful banquet hall all to ourselves. We decided to save some money and rent two speakers and hook them up to our Mac Book Pro. We wanted to select the music to ourselves and created a great playlist that kept us on the dance floor all night.

 

I can't emphasize how beautiful everything was and how well organized. We thought that by going with a different resort other than Dreams, Cabo del Sol, Fiesta Americana, etc. we would be sacrificing quality. That was not the case. Our pictures were lovely and captured a wonderful moment. We went with Gilda Badillo and were not disappointed. Not only did she take us to Old San Jose del Cabo art district for a separate photo session, she also took us to a private beach to catch a glimpse of the beautiful rock formations. All of this was part of the 7 hour package. Our first photo session was 2 hours and then she focused on the wedding the remaining 5 hours.

 

Suggestions on how we kept our ENTIRE wedding (ceremony, reception, rehearsal dinner, wedding favors, hotel, airfare) under ten thousand dollars:

 

1) Mina allowed us to purchase our own liquor at Costco. We paid a corkage fee of $40 per person for the night versus $80 since we wanted to ensure that we had top shelf liquor.

2) We selected 3 appetizers for the cocktail hour versus 5 and were only charged $9 per person

3) Our incredible meal was only $38 per person versus $60 at other hotels (I am comparing it to other quotes that I received)

4) We stayed at Villa del Palmar but our ceremony was held at Villa del Arco (a little more upscale and newer resort)

5) Our ceremony package was $1650 total which included my spa suite, hair, make up, mani+pedi, ceremony decorations, violinist, flowers for bride and groom, a welcome gift.

 

 

Overall we had a great time. Hope this information was useful!

 

Hedra

[LeeLee]

Sounds wonderful!  Congrats!  When do we get to see the pics?!

[xtenna]

I def want to see these pics, sounds incredible. 

[Donie Jordan]

Thank you for the wonderful review!

[TammyWright]

review is in wrong section so please post in review section...thread locked